Fw: Hebbo!

 

 

Hello, everyone!

 

This morning one of the sheep got out of the pen. So for exercise, we played a game of catch the sheep. When we finally cornered it, we realized that we had no idea what to do with it, so we petted it and let it go, then got Sister Mayne so she could put the sheep back.

 

Well, we were going to go up to hanging lake today, but Friday morning, I was running with Sister Pfeifer when something popped funny in my knee and it's been hurting really bad ever since. It's less painful at the moment, but it's really stiff like someone poured glue into my knee, and it still hurts sometimes. It wouldn't be a good idea to go for a hike with a sore knee. Hopefully that gets better soon.

 

We got a golden investigator this week! Our ward mission leader had a son who just got back from his mission in Brazil. Apparently, while Eric was in Brazil, he had been sending letters to one of his life-long friends and teaching her about the gospel. Just now, she decided she was ready to hear the missionary discussions. The first lesson, she basically said, "Tell me what I need to do to be a member of your church." We told her about baptism and she's totally ready. First lesson, she had a baptismal date. The Lord really is preparing the hearts of the people to hear the gospel.

 

We also got a lot of rain this week! It made me happy. Granted, it also came with lightning, but cool. Whatever works. We've had more rain here than we ever had in Rexburg, so it makes me feel better.

 

So I was a little frustrated earlier this week. We had been teaching an investigator who had previously been taught be multiple sets of missionaries, and we were going through more of the discussions and trying to convince her that a cup of coffee every day is not worth the price of her salvation, and then she told us that she was leaving to go to California for vacation. Then a week later we find out from her neighbors who are members that she never left! So it was sort of like, "Argh." So we went back to her house and taught her some more, but it was like everything we said went in one ear and out the other. I'm afraid she may need to be dropped since she's absolutely refusing to take part in anything. She's told us that she believes the church is true, but she just wants all the blessings of the church to magically shower upon her without having to make any effort to get it. She was like, "Can't I get all the benefits the church brings without getting baptised?" No! There's a reason Christ gave those ordinances! Grumble grumble. As my lovely friend Aerika would say... Don't be dumb! As Jacob 6:12 says, "Oh be wise. What can I say more?" -_-

 

Also, one of the disadvantages to starting an English speaking area is that there are still quite a few Spanish people and I can't understand a word they say. I may or may not be self-teaching myself Spanish in the near future.

 

Anyway, so those are my stories for the week.

 

As for things pertaining to home, I'm glad David made it home safe and sound. (I had actually forgotten that David would be out of school by this point.) Too bad about the Wager, though. And David, if you could do me a favor and write down all of the contacts in my phone on a piece of paper or something and store it in my treasure box, that would be greatly appreciated, then you can feel free to take over my phone.

 

For my camera cord, you might find it in the mess on top of my desk. If it's in a nice looking box, it's the wrong one. Probably. I guess it would help if you had my camera for reference. But also on the desk should be a clear plastic stand to set the camera on, and I think it has a thingamabob in the shape of the plug-in for the cord. That might help. Erm, just sort of sift through the stuff on my desk. If it looks important, stuff it in a box for me to deal with when I get home. Otherwise, you're free to do whatever with it. ^^' I'm going to guess that you already planned on doing that with all my stuff for the time being, which is totally alright with me. After all, I don't have to worry about it for the next year and a half. :D

 

And I'm glad Darcy and Hosh settled on a wedding date, though I was still a little surprised that they pushed it to November rather than getting married in September, but I guess it takes a while to set up a wedding. Anyway, funny faces for Hosh. o_<

 

I loff you all!!! The church is true! Don't be dumb! Yeah!

 

~Sister Richelle Nicole Jones

Fw: Judea's plain

It's been a month since I've been home.

 

Crazy, right?

 

I thought so.

 

Anyway, so last Monday evening, I finally got the package you guys sent. It made me very happy. I was kinda sad that I didn't get any CD's, but you got my camera cord, so that's good. I loved all the letters I got! It made me feel better, especially since I got almost nothing else for the day.

 

I was a silly-face and didn't grab my camera cord before going to the church to do email stuff, so I'm going to try to do that a little bit later. Colorado is really pretty, and I think it's funny that I get some of my most gorgeous pictures when we've been unfruitful in our finding. For instance, we were following an address that we plunked into our GPS, and apparently, that member lived far far away in Judea's plains (we've been singing that a lot any time we find that a person's address leads us off in the middle of nowhere which is pretty common considering we're living in the middle of farmland) and when we got there, the people we were trying to visit were apparently getting married, so we didn't feel like crashing the wedding (we thought about it, though) and so we were out in the middle of nowhere, but the view was amazing looking over the fields and mountains and stuff. So, hey, I got a neat picture. And that seems to happen most times we can't find a member's house (because the area book is wrong and has addresses that don't even exist and confuse our poor little GPS) or when no one is home. Usually I get a good view out of it.

 

The storms here have been pretty cool to watch. We get lightning storms almost every afternoon, but you know what's funny? The Native American term for the town of Gypsum is "The hole in the sky" because it's set in the valley in such a way that the air currents actually move around Gypsum. So basically, we get lots of storms, but not a one of them actually hit Gypsum. They move around Gypsum. So we get a nice light show in the mountains, lots of thunder. I've only been in the middle of a storm once so far, and that was because we were in Eagle for the day. We were thinking about going out to walk since we were low on miles, and right then, KRACKABOOM!!! And then it was pouring. Bahahah. It was fun, though.

 

So next week for P Day, Sister Pfeifer and I are planning on hiking up to hanging lake. When I was in the mission home my first day out here, they were showing us some of the spots in the mission that were basically the prettiest spots and hanging lake was one of them. I saw the picture they showed and was like, "Oh man, I want to go there during my mission," but then they mentioned that the area with hanging lake was a spanish-speaking only area. Well, guess what area Sister Pfeifer and I opened to the english speaking mission... So hanging lake is in between Gypsum and Glenwood springs in the Glenwood canyon just before you reach No Name. I'm excited to take lots of pictures, not so excited for the hike up to it, but hey. It'll be cool, and Sister Pfeifer has enough energy to probably pick me up and run me to the top if I get tired.

 

Anyway, that's all I've got for this week, other than the fact that Gus the parrot is amusing and tries to bite my companion every time she walks by and it freaks her out and it's really funny. Gus likes me just fine (probably because I fed him a cheeto) but he cannot stand Sister Pfeifer. Heheheh.

 

See you all next week!

 

~Sister Richelle Nicole Jones

Fw: sheep

 

 

From: Richelle Jones

Sent: Monday, July 15, 2013 12:11 PM

To: l.l.jones@comcast.net

Subject: sheep

 

Dear family,

Guess what I woke up to this morning... BAAA BAAA BAAA BAAA a bunch of sheep wandered over to the field by our window early in the morning and decided to be as loud as they possible could. Sheep are pretty quiet. Except when they're not.

So question, did you guys get the emails I sent last week? I got almost no emails except a bunch of "Failure to send" emails which is possibly the most depressing thing ever. I also got a letter from Mom, but it was short. Oh, and I got Dad's funny pic he sent me. :P

Well now I'm all sad and stuff. :(

I'll try to resend all of last week's emails, so if you get two of the same, I'm sorry. I just want to make sure you guys got it.

As far as stuff for this week, we had a bit of a cool experience. There was one day where Sister Pfeifer and I were having zero luck with anything. We were driving around trying to visit non-members, less actives, and members, and no one would answer their doors. Frustrated, we just started walking so we wouldn't use any more miles than we already had. Then Sister Pfeifer turns down this little street and decides to go tracting. I was too frustrated and tired to say anything else, though I dislike tracting greatly, but we went and knocked on a few doors. Nothing. No one would answer. Finally I turned to Sister Pfeifer and was like, "OK, I give up. Let's just go back and look at who's next on our list," but she responded with, "No! One more door!" and pointed in what seemed to be an arbitrary direction and started walking that way. She walked past about two more houses before walking up to one, and we knocked on the door, and someone finally answered! Her name is Alyssa, and she's a Catholic but isn't really solid in her faith, though she believes in God. We taught her the restoration and she seemed to take it all in and it was great! It was really one of those experiences that you hear about happening but never expect it to happen. The Lord really does bless us.

Anyway, we got a couple of other investigators this week because some members offered to feed us and then invited some of their non-member friends over as well, and that's a really great way to find people. It's been a great experience so far.

Then, one of the investigators we had previously from last week wanted us to help her paint her shed. I got a nice tan from standing out in the hot sun the whole time, and Pam said she wanted me to paint a mural on one of the sides, so I'm thrilled about that! Unfortunately, she's leaving for California for like a week or something, but I'll be able to paint it when I get back. :)

Anyway, that's about it for this week. I'm going to resend last week's stuff, now.

~Sister Richelle Nicole Jones

NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.

Richelle's address

Richelle didn't include the zip code for her mailing address. Her address is:

 

Sister Richelle Jones

912 Mayne St

Gypsom, CO 81637

Fw: Out in the field! Literally!

 

 

 

 

Dear family and stuff,

 

Hello! Guess what? I'm a missionary! I'm still in that stage of, "I have no idea what I'm doing!" It's like the MTC prepared me quite a bit, but no amount of preparation could truly prepare you for the actual field. So on the day we got told where we were going, I was crossing my fingers going, "Please don't get sent to the middle of nowhere. Please don't get sent to the middle of nowhere."

 

Guess where I got sent. Yup. Middle of nowhere. It's a little town called Gypsum in the Eagle Valley. The area covers both Gypsum and Eagle, but they're both smaller than Rexburg. I think. We're about a 20 minute drive from No Name, Colorado. You think I'm joking. Look it up. I will admit, though, that the area is gorgeous. It's right in the mountains, and the Glenwood Canyons that we drive through every district meeting is simply awe-inspiring. I would send you pictures, but these computers are so old they don't take SD cards, so I have to find a converter at Walmart. Either that or you can send me my camera cord. That would be nice.

 

Anyway, so my new companion is Sister Pfeifer. I had a bit of troubles getting used to her at first. She's... Different. One of the elders described her (before I met her) as, "AAAAAAAAAHHHH" I find that description to be fairly accurate. She's a ball of energy, likes to wake up at the crack of dawn to go running, is more than a little on the tone-deaf side but still sings her heart out. It's taken a while to adjust to her. But all is good.

 

We haven't had any fantastic displays of spirituality just yet, but that will come, and I can still see the Lord in my life guiding me. We've mostly been visiting members and non-members since we don't have any investigators yet. Oh, yeah, did I mention that this is a new area we're opening? Yeah. It's a bit different than what I was expecting.It was technically open before, but only to spanish-speaking elders. So we're opening the area to english speaking and to sisters. So we kind of have to start from scratch since we can't exactly take on the spanish investigators.

 

We've been staying with the Bishop's family. Guess what two animals they raise on their farm? Darcy will love this. Birds and sheep. MmmHmm. Bishop Mayne has just recently started the hobby of raising racing pidgeons. And the sheep are pretty quiet most of the time, but just occasionally they all start up at once, "Baaa BAaaa BAAAA baaa bAaa," but we aren't home most of the time anyway since we're usually out and about visiting people. They also have a pet Parrot, Gus. He can say, "Hello, Gus!" "Hi!" "Hello, pretty bird!" "Alright," "Ok," "Good Morning," "Night night," and a number of other phrases, though his favorite thing to do is to just whistle at you. Sister Mayne reminds me a lot of Sister Grubbs, which I find both strangely ironic and comforting.

 

Anyway, this has been a fun little adventure I've had. I'm sorry to hear about Uncle James and Aunt Cherryl. I hope they get better soon! I love you all and I'll keep you in my prayers!

 

~Sister Richelle Nicole Jones

 

P.S. Oh, yeah. I need to send you my address. It is as follows:

 

Sister Richelle Jones

912 Mayne St.

Gypsum, CO

 

P.P.S. So the mission rules are pretty lenient on music. I can listen to anything uplifting or spiritual, or anything orchestrated. It's up to your discretion. So I would love some CD's. If you could put together some of the band songs David has on his computer, I would love that, and I would like some Janice Kapp Perry stuff, maybe some Enya. I think David has a lot of CDs and stuff he used on his mission. If you could send that, it would be greatly appreciated.

 

P.P.P.S. Random note, Bishop and Sister Mayne were the ones who donated their ranch to build the church on it, so not only do we live right next to the church, the street name is also Mayne Street. I thought that was a cool tidbit of information. Anyway, for Realz now. I'm done.

Fw: Final week at the MTC

 

 

 

 

Dear family and friends,

 

Oh, man this week has been awesome! I'll try to cover as much of it as I can, but my time is ratherly limited. So obviously, last Sunday was the broadcast. I wasn't allowed to sing in the choir for that since I arrived too late at the MTC, so that was a bummer, but so it goes. I sat down in the crowd and soon after located all the cameras for crowd shots and I was in the blind spot of every last one. I was like, "Bummer, dude," but it was too late to change seats. So it's not a big surprise that none of you spotted me.

 

Monday I had a bit of a rough day. I was getting stressed out and was trying to ignore it through most of the day. But then in the evening, I was walking to the classroom to do some study in preparation for meeting with our investigator from the TRC (Teaching Resource Center) and I had never met this investigator and was super worried about it, and then I stepped in a crack in the pavement, turned my ankle, and fell to the ground scraping a huge wound in my knee. So I was stressed out, worried, unsure, and in a lot of pain. Sister Baker is a nurse, so she was able to patch me up ok, but it was still quite the trial. And then we went in to teach Leah, the investigator, and the lesson bombed. It bombed HARD. It was bad. So that pretty much settled it for me and I had a bit of an emotional breakdown. I mean, I've been told that most people go through at least one emotional breakdown in the MTC, so I guess I was just serving my time.

 

Tuesday really made up for it, though. So on top of having a good day on Tuesday, we ended up having a devotional where we went up to the main campus again, and this time I was able to sing in the choir! So we went to the center and had this amazing choir practice since the director not only helped us sing, but also told the spiritual stories behind the song and the lyrics, and it was such a great experience. And then I noticed that the screens set up were telling who the devotional speaker was, and it was Janice Kapp Perry. No joke. I can't even begin to tell you how amazing the actual devotional was. The best part was that Sister Perry had written new lyrics for "As sisters in zion" so she had all of us sing the new lyrics in the "As sisters in zion: We'll bring the world his truth" medley. So at first the sisters sang, and my companion and a few other sisters around me were like, "Should we stand up?" So we did. It was just four or five sisters who stood, but we sang with such strong conviction, and then when the elders came in, as one, each and every one of them stood and sang. It was like their act was stating, "I STAND FOR GOD" and a tangible wave of the spirit just flooded through the room. It was unbelievable! The rest of the sisters stood as well, and all I could think was, "To see so many people standing for their God. There is no greater sight."

 

So that was Tuesday. Then, on Wednesday, there was another miracle. We were meeting with Leah at the TRC again, and I was super worried about how things were going to go since last time we had left her more confused than when we had entered. Any time I tried to think of what we were going to teach her, my mind just went absolutely blank. It was the scariest thing ever. But Sister Baker wanted to ask Leah more questions about  herself since Leah belongs to like, an evangelist Christian church or something like that (she referred to it as being a Jesus freak), so we wanted to just ask her about the relationship she already has with God. So we did, and Leah relaxed and became way more open to us. Then she started talking about how her friend had handed her the book of mormon, and she had started reading it, but didn't feel that it was really anything special, and then suddenly a scripture popped into my head and I immediately flipped to it and read it, and it was like the spirit flowed through me, I said it with such conviction. The scripture was 2 Nephi 33:10 and it says approximately, "If you don't believe in these words, believe in Christ. And if you believe in Christ, you will believe in these words." I was shaking by the end of reading the scripture and Leah just went dead silent. Then, the next time we taught her Thursday night, I again was just pulling a blank on what to say to her. Leah didn't want to hear any of the lessons, so we decided to just teach her through the spirit. We made the plan to go in and bear our testimonies. So we came in there and Leah was like, "I just keep thinking again and again about that scripture you read to me. I mean, it says that if I don't believe in these words that I should believe in Christ. And I do. I believe it with all my heart. But then it says that if I believe in Christ, I will believe in these words. And, like, I haven't found anything in the book of mormon that contradicts the bible. I know. I've looked." and then Sister Baker and I bore our testimonies and there was this silence in the room and the air was thick with the spirit. We asked Leah how she felt and her words came out as all a scramble. It's like she's facing a war within herself between her religion and believing in the book of mormon. We left the room after we closed with a prayer and Sister Baker broke into tears saying, "She know! She knows!" The TRC is filled with a mix of members and non-members, so some of them are just acting, but what we felt in that room with Leah, it was real. It was so real.

 

I testify that this is the true church. I have grown so much since entering the MTC. I can't even describe a tenth of what I've been through here. I leave the MTC on Monday, it's only been less than a week and a half, but it's felt like several months.

 

So a few things I need to talk about before I close, first of all, I found some luggage I'm going to purchase at the MTC bookstore. I get a huge discount in that store for being a missionary. Everything is half off. Also, I would like it if you would scan my patriarchal blessing and send me a printed copy of that. I meant to do that before I left, but I forgot. I can't print anything out, so I'm going to want you to send that to me. That should be all. Thanks!

 

~Sister Richelle Nicole Jones

Fw: First week at the MTC

 

 

 

 

Hello, Mom! And everyone reading this email!

 

So it's my first P day this Friday and I had no letters. It made me saaaaaad. :( But so it goes. I'm assuming you just recently got home and whatnot. The past few days at the MTC have been nuts. I've only been here for about 2 days or so, but it feels like I've been here for a good week. After I got to the MTC, they checked my name and apparently I've been moved to the brand new section of the MTC, which is actually some apartments built on the BYU campus that have been modified into classrooms. Seriously. My classroom is a dorm room filled with desks and with a whiteboard splatted on one of the walls. It fits maybe 8 people in it. So that was an adventure, I had to take a shuttle over to the new area and it's like way far away from the rest of the MTC, but it's actually kind of nice. The main MTC campus was super crowded, but this new "West Campus" is really really not, and it's nice. Then I also heard soon after arriving that the entire MTC is going to this world-wide broadcast set up by the general authorities that has been described as the "Historical moment of the century" which is a bit of a big deal. I had never heard of this before, but that's happening this Sunday, so I arrived just in time to go to that. I have no idea what to expect for that. Oh, and my luggage broke. No joke. The large bag I had, I was dragging it to my new dorm, and I had to lift it up and over a curb. Silly me. I picked it up by the extended handle, not the strong leather one actually attatched properly to the bag. Snap creak pop and the handle came off! And the rods are stuck straight in the air and won't go back down and the metal has sharp edges on it where the handle broke and bent the metal, so it's really hard to carry my luggage around without scraping up my arm really bad. I'm not really sure what to do about that other than go to the MTC bookstore and hope they sell good suitcases. I haven't been able to go to the main campus yet since that brief moment of passing through it on my first day, so me and my companion, Sister Baker, are going to go do that once we're done sending emails here. Lessee. Other than that, I've pretty well covered most things. It's been hard work here at the MTC, and although I'm only staying till July 1st, it seems like forever away, but I can manage. It's hard to portray in this email just how much I've grown in my time here. I feel like I had more to talk about, but I can't honestly think of anything else. I loff you!

 

~Sister Richelle Nicole Jones

 

P.S. By the way. Funny thing, apparently the email system for missionaries has been updated, but the update wasn't listed on my packet thing or anything, so I didn't know until my teachers and zone leaders here at the MTC told me. But I can send emails to just about anyone now. I think the main people we have to ask permission before we can send emails to is people of the opposite gender who are in the same mission area. But even then, you can get that ok'd by the mission president. So that's cool. I can respond to people a little more conveniently now. :D Anyway, that's all for now. Look for me in the broadcast thing. I'll probably be in the crowd somewhere!

 

P.P.S. It's really weird only being known as Sister Jones. I'm still a little bit slow to respond to that, but I'm getting used to it.

NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.